He’s crossed the Mighty Mississippi and has been spotted in the Indiana Territory. He probably won’t be delivered until Friday, because I bet they’ll want a signature, and I won’t be home until then. The waiting, it is almost killerating me!
Category: Uncategorized
Farewell to Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander died last week. He was one of my favorite childhood writers, one of the very few who did fantasy well. I first read the Chronicles of Prydain at about the same time as I discovered the books of CS Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, and Lucy Boston.
His final book should be coming out this summer. It won’t get the press that the new Harry Potter book will receive, but it will, I’m sure, be the better of the two. And I say that as a huge Harry Potter fan.
Instant Review: Survivorman
I’m addicted to Survivorman. At first, I was “meh” about it, thinking that it wasn’t very impressive to be dumped in the middle of the desert with a camera crew. Then, I realized, there was no camera crew. Les Stroud, Survivorman himself, is dropped at various locations with a minimum of supplies and given seven days to find his way back to civilization. He packs all the camera equipment and does all the filming himself.
I’m fascinated by it. In the boreal forest episode, he had a handful of cashews and beef jerky, one match, and a multi-tool. That’s it. Sometimes, he has a wrecked vehicle he can scavenge for supplies (e.g. a bicycle or snow mobile), but it’s still pretty damned impressive and entertaining, especially when you remember that he’s filming and lugging camera equipment around the whole time, too!
Instant Review: Survivor Finale
I stayed up way past my bedtime on Sunday, watching the Survivor finale. I was really hoping Yau-man would win, but Earl was my second pick, so I wasn’t too disappointed.
Howsomever! I was thoroughly squicked out by Alex. I found him just about intolerable on the show, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was just as gross in the finale. O ick. I don’t know which grossed me out more, the seductive looks into the camera or the way he attacked Cassandra. The whole thing was foul. I had to laugh, though, when he accused Cassandra of befriending Stacy, then turning on her and voting her out. Hello?! Cassandra never voted for Stacy. Not one single time. And where does he get off complaining about people using others and being manipulative? Did he forget what show he was on?
Mah Bukket
I recommend going through all the I Can Has Cheezburger site, if you have time. If you don’t have time, then I recommend at least checking out the bucketlorn walrus storyline. If it does not make you giggle, then there is something very wrong with you.
Also, if you are a Star Trek (the good one) fan, check out LOLTrek, wherein everyone’s favorite episode, The Trouble with Tribbles, is LOLCatzed.
That is all. As you were, comrades!
Mr. Raccoon
We had a visitor last night! A young adult raccoon ambled onto my patio while I was making supper. I think he must have smelled the cooking food, and was investigating his chances of getting in on the action. It was too dark to get a photo of him through the window, and there’s no way I was going to go outside with him there, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Raccoons are crazy cute, but the possibility of them carrying diseases–like rabies–is too high to risk contact with them. Also, they can be very aggressive. This little guy was awfully brazen. He came right up to the patio window, where Harriet was doing her best Cujo impersonation. She was literally throwing herself at the glass. Not very smart of the raccoon to stick around, which makes me even more leery of him. Rabies is a neurological disease, and one symptom is the inability to properly gauge danger. Rabid animals do stupid things, like attack critters much bigger and meaner than themselves.
Supper, by the way, included fried tofu. It is most tasty. I’m not a big fan of tofu (the texture, it doth offend!), but I do like it sliced very thinly and either Shake-n-Baked or dipped in a mixture of about 2 parts soy sauce, one part water, and a few drops of worcestershire sauce, sprinkled with garlic and onion powder, then fried in olive oil. It gets crispy and leathery, which is much preferable to mushy and chalky.
“It’s people!”
While I was watching The Amazing Race[1] last night, I noticed something amusing during one of the commercials. Thanks to the magic of DVR, I was able to rewind it and get the exact wording:
…Patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers.
So if you are eating elderly people, lay off the Celebrex!
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[1] I was sad to see Uchenna and Joyce go. They have been favorites of mine since the first time they were on the show. Why, oh why, couldn’t it have been Charla and Mirna? They make my ears bleed. I cringe when they start talking to anyone they think isn’t fluent in English–their pidgin English and exaggerated accents are painful and embarrassing.
Breadmaking
I love homemade bread, but I don’t often have the patience to make it entirely by hand. I’m also not in love with the stuff that comes out of bread machines. It’s too dense and too dry, and it’s often crumbly. But, I’m on an extra tight budget this month, so I got out the bread machine in lieu of buying bread.
Tip 1: I experimented a bit, and discovered that adding a little extra water (or a little less flour), omitting the powdered milk that most recipes seem to call for, substituting olive oil for butter, and upping the salt a bit, results in an airy, moist bred with a crisp crust. Very nearly delightful.
The only problem–and it’s a minor one–is that the initial blending needs a little bit of assistance. Because of the increased ratio of water:flour, the paddle won’t be able to gather everything together into a ball on its own. A couple of minutes with a wooden spoon, pushing flour from the corners toward the moving paddle, is all it takes to get things on track. After the dough comes together, the paddle should be able to knead it on its own.
Tip 2: When making whole wheat bread in the bread machine, stop the machine after the first knead/rest period, then restart the cycle from the beginning. The extra kneading will help develop the gluten, and will result in a softer, less crumbly bread.
Oh, Mother
Have you ever been mesmerized by television you did not intend to watch? Meet Mother Angelica. She has a daily half-hour rosary-along show on the Catholic channel.
There is a season
I mentioned that we seem to’ve moved straight from winter to summer? I took Harriet out back at about 11:00 last night, and Mr. Upstairs had his AC running. Now, I’ll grant that it’s warmer in upper apartments than lower ones, but it couldn’t have been that warm up there. I mean, I had to go get a blanket because I got a little chilly while watching teevee.
Air conditioning!?
In March!?
red paper boat 